The Minority in Parliament has accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of providing misleading information about Ghana’s abstention from a recent vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
According to the Member of Parliament for Damongo and Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, the Ministry’s explanation was “totally false.”
The Ministry had claimed that Ghana abstained from a resolution on protecting LGBTQI individuals from violence and discrimination, emphasizing that the issue was not about supporting LGBTQI rights.
However, Mr. Jinapor rejected this explanation, stating that the actual subject of the vote was the renewal of the mandate of the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI), which includes promoting LGBTQI rights globally.
“The statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that ‘the question before the Council was whether persons who identify as LGBTQI should be protected against violence and discrimination or not’ is totally false,” Jinapor said. “The question before the Council was whether to extend the mandate of the IE SOGI, which had ended, for him to continue performing his functions, which invariably include the promotion of LGBTQ,” he noted.
Mr. Jinapor also disputed the Ministry’s argument that Ghana abstained from the vote due to Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution, which prohibits discrimination. “It cannot also be correct that Ghana abstained from the vote because of Chapter Five of the Constitution. Nothing in Article 17 supports individual choice of sexual orientation or gender identity,” he said.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the international definition of “discrimination” could potentially target laws like Ghana’s Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, which criminalizes LGBTQI practices. “In his April 17, 2025 report to the Human Rights Council, the Independent Expert urged that states should end both de jure and de facto criminalisation of LGBTQ,” Jinapor stated.
